The Square (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Square (2017): Museum curator experiences crises with a pickpocket, PR stunts, and sex. This Swedish, Palme d'Or winner pokes at art, money, society, political correctness and social consciousness. Hit or miss on the satire, but always weird. B-

Mapping Racial Diversity in the RISD

Source: Washington Post.

The Washington Post published a tool that allows one to use census data to map changing racial diversity in cities across the country from 1990 to 2016. The graphic here is roughly contiguous with the Richardson ISD boundaries. There are no surprises.

Neighborhood Schools

Recently, 300 community members of the Richardson school district wrapped up months of meetings, making 27 recommendations that were accepted by the school board to comprise the RISD's Strategic Plan 2017. One recommendation in particular caught my eye.

Adopt a neighborhood school policy and create a formal definition of neighborhood school to provide clarity on future decisions regarding school construction, boundary lines, and transfer policies.

Source: RISD.

POTD: Scarlet Macaw

From 2018 01 25 Costa Rica

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Botanical Orchid Garden in La Garita, Alajuela, Costa Rica. The garden is filled not only with tropical flowers but shows off a few native bird species as well, like this Scarlet Macaw.

All the Money in the World (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

All the Money in the World (2017): Forget the drama surrounding Spacey/Plummer, this is a surprisingly good thriller. Maybe JP Getty is made too much the villain, but maybe in real life he was. Wahlberg and his character are weak points. Michelle Williams is great. B+

POTD: Land of Orchids

From 2018 01 25 Costa Rica

Costa Rica, land of orchids, volcanoes, coffee, jungles, beaches, you get the picture. Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Botanical Orchid Garden in La Garita, Alajuela, Costa Rica. The garden is filled with trails, greenhouses, nurseries and a laboratory, mostly but not exclusively devoted to orchids.

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2017): Documentary of how a small family bank in Chinatown became the only US bank the govt prosecuted for mortgage fraud during banking crisis. The only one. Besides the injustice, movie provides insight into Chinese-American community. B+

POTD: Add Some Color to the Skyline

From 2018 01 23 Panama Canal

Today's photo-of-the-day is of the Biomuseo in Panama. a museum desiged by Frank Gehry, showcasing Panama's natural and cultural history. Three million years ago, rocks rose creating the isthmus of Panama. The resulting land bridge joining North and South America allowed species exchange. Simultaneously, species exchange between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was blocked. The museum tells the story of the significance of Panama to the history of life on the planet. And for the casual passerby in a cruise ship, the museum provides a splash of color to the monotonous gray color palette of the Panama City skyline.

A bonus photo after the jump.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

Avengers: Infinity War (2018): More like Infinity Cast. Full of deaths, resurrections, near-deaths, and scratches. Needs less over-the-top acting and more self-aware pop culture references. I did not see ending coming, but in hindsight, it's brilliant. C+

Metadata and Education

I understand the benefits of metadata collection. I want to know what school children who are failing have in common so that by targeting that, maybe I can have more children succeed. Is it the school, the teacher, socioeconomics, health, language, etc. If you look at one child's academic results, it's difficult to understand why that child is failing. But if you look at dozens or hundreds or thousands of children's results, patterns emerge that can be used to pinpoint the source the problem and suggest ways to improve teaching methods.

But I also understand that metadata collection and analysis is unpopular in some circles. I'm not unsympathetic to some of their concerns.